Command and Conquer

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"He who controls the past commands the future, He who commands the future, conquers the past." -Kane.

Long ago, back before vanilla Dawn of War, back when Starcraft wasn't even a sketch in the minds of Blizzard, one franchise ruled above all other the RTS genre, Command and Conquer.

While some scholars argue Dune 2 was a previous the first prototype of the real-time strategy genre, most fans and critics argue Command and Conquer is where everything truely started, thus what we may now call Tiberian Dawn (and very appropriately) implemented what would became the hallmarks of any awesome and self-respecting RTS game:

• Well defined factions with their own quirks, ideologies and agendas.
• Mission-driven campaigns for all factions with a rich geopolitical and economic narrative.
• Skirmish games for good compstomp.
• Multiplayer capabilities to spend whole nights fighting with your bros.
• Patch support and an online community capable to produce new material as well as bring impartial feedback.
• Awesome media including cool cinematics with LARGE HAMS and kick-ass OST.

In time the franchise split in three branches, all of them awesome in their own right and capable to compete alone with any other game setting while bringing their own unique features, their tale is also a cautionary one for any franchise for C&C, depict its many achievements and strong fanbase fell from grace.

Tiberian universe

Follows the struggle of Kane, widely considered the greatest Magnificent Bastard of the whole videogame industry (no kidding here, TvTropes declared him god of Magnificent Bastards after competing with the likes of Tzeentch and Eldrad) and leader of the shadowy Brotherhood of Nod, against the Global Defense Initiative, a military coalition formed by the United Nations, spanning nearly a century of warfare, both factions fight for the control of Tiberium, an alien substance which is slowly xenoforming the Earth, destroying the ecosystem but also giving mankind unique industrial and scientific possibilities.

By the third game a new alien faction arrives, the Scrin, after Kane sends a false signal making them believe Earth has finally completed its transformation into a Tiberium world, it is soon revealed the alien force which is threatening mankind with extinction are just a minor mining expedition with no real backup, a fact Kane takes advantage to steal their technology in order to achieve his master plan, which by the fourth game allows him to clean Earth of Tiberium, even while he was trying the opposite during the previous games (EA trademark for you), and ascend to another plane of existence along with his followers.

The games of the franchise:

• Tiberian Dawn: where it all started, Earth is still widely similar to our own reality, this game features what may become the standard for the industry, including some of the best scenes ever.
  • The Cover Operations: more missions!
  • Sole Survivor: Just don't, I mean, seriously?! You control only one unit?!
• Tiberian Sun: cyberpunk heavy setting, with mutants, hints of the scrin, cyborgs and futuristic weapons.
  • Firestorm: CABAL, the supercomputer of the Brotherhood of Nod, reveals, attempting to turn everyone into cyborgs to accomplish Kane's master plan, new scenarios, more options.
• Tiberium Wars: combining the the cyberpunk style with 20-minutes-in-the future of your Dale Brown novels, it introduces the Scrin, which are what if the Tyranids and the Eldar joined forces.
  • Kane's Wrath: KANE IS BACK! This expansion centers about everyone's favourite dark messiah, with every mission showing large amounts of HAMtastic dialogues and Just as planned taken to the eleven, also, awesome new units and subfactions including each major power getting its Lord of War styled superunit.